Clayton Act

AuthorJeffrey Lehman, Shirelle Phelps

Page 428

A federal law enacted in 1914 as an amendment to the SHERMAN ANTI-TRUST ACT (15 U.S.C.A. § 1 et seq. [1890]), prohibiting undue restriction of trade and commerce by designated methods.

Page 429

The Clayton Act (15 U.S.C.A. § 12 et seq. [1914]) was originally enacted to exempt unions from the scope of ANTITRUST LAWS by refusing to treat human labor as a commodity or an article of commerce. Today, it is used primarily to prohibit the suppression of free competition by making illegal four business practices: price discrimination, which is the sale of the same product to comparably situated buyers at different prices; tying and exclusive dealing contracts, which are the sale of products on condition that the buyer stop dealing with the seller's competitors; corporate mergers, the acquisition of competing companies by one company; and interlocking directorates, the members of which are common members on the boards of directors of...

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